It's emerged today that senior HSE management have warned their own staff of potential dangers to patients due to understaffing and lack of funds.

The Irish Times today reports that a number of key areas have been identified in which care was at a substandard level.

They include harm to patients arising from inadequate care, unsafe services for children and funding running for the nursing home support scheme.

Over 3 billion euro has been cut from the HSE budget in the last 5 years - that's 20% of it's overall budget.